Computer systems have long been used to manage business related information. However, costs associated with storage, communication and information processing prohibited the use of computers to store and to manage other kinds of data. When costs came down, it became feasible to digitize and store other forms of data, including digitized data. Digitized data primarily consists of digitized visual images, audio and video, although is not limited to those types of data. Advanced information management system structures are implemented to store and manage digitized data.
In a shared or distributed file system, one or more central servers mediate access to files. When many computers or processors access a particular set of files, the central servers become a bottleneck. It is thus desirable to avoid accessing the central servers for normal file operations.